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Alaska Airlines is cutting flight schedules and jobs, but many Alaska Airlines flights in Southeast won't be affected, partly because they're subsidized by the federal government.

Capacity decreases will be "primarily in the Lower 48," said the airline's communications manager, Marianne Lindsey.

"We're not making any changes to prices," she said.

The airline says it's shrinking capacity by 8 percent and jobs by 9 to 10 percent because fuel prices have doubled in the last year while customer demand has gone down.

The only travel within Alaska to be affected will be the Anchorage-Fairbanks run, which will see 7.5 round trips daily instead of 9.5 trips, according to Lindsey.

The airline is owned by Seattle-based Alaska Air Group.

Many Alaska flights subsidized

Federal subsidies help keep Southeast planes in the air.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service program subsidizes flights for small communities "that otherwise would not receive any scheduled air service," according to DOT. Carriers have to give DOT financial data that prove they can't profitably serve the communities without a subsidy.

The program was founded in 1978.

This year, Alaska air carriers got subsidies of $9.4 million, about 7 percent of the $140.5 million program.

Forty-one of the program's roughly 140 subsidized communities are in Alaska, including 10 on Kodiak Island.

About $5.2 million of that goes to Alaska Airlines flights with Southeast stops.

For service from Gustavus, Cordova, Yakutat, Petersburg and Wrangell to Juneau, Ketchikan and Anchorage, Alaska Airlines gets annual subsidies ranging from $450,000 to $1.45 million, according to U.S Department of Transportation data.

Alaska Airlines' only other subsidized service in the state is between Adak and Anchorage, at a cost of $1.5 million.

Other Southeast-serving air carriers get subsidies through the program, including Harris Air, Ward Air, Alaska Seaplane and Taquan.

Small communities are in particular danger of becoming cost-cutting targets of air carriers "because they are often a carrier's least profitable operation," said a U.S. Government Accountability Office report in April 2007.

Employees asked to leave

Alaska Airlines is asking for leaves of absence and early retirements from employees in what's called an "early-out" program.

They'll start leaving the company in November. A large proportion of them are expected from Seattle, the airline's hub, where about half the company's 10,000 workers are based. The company said it's too early to calculate the costs.

This will be the fourth such buyout in 15 years.

"It's a pretty good deal," said Genevieve Conrad, local union shop steward and Juneau employee of the airline.

As to whether she'd take an early out, the 32-year employee said, "Haven't a clue."

She guessed that a few in Juneau and Southeast might take the buyout, but mostly those were near retirement anyway.

Conrad emphasized that the job cuts weren't forced and said Alaska had treated its employees well.

"We're not in such bad straits that we're gong to come in one day and not have a job," she said. "At least not yet."

• Contact reporter Kate Golden at 523-2276 or kate.golden@juneauempire.com.